Video with Flash MX : A Users Guide : Session 1 of 3.

Video in Flash MX.

Danny Mavromatis and Mike Davidson, ESPN.com

Danny and Mike work for ESPN.com which is a very popular site. They do have some power to force users to change browsers.

Video in Flash

Image Sequences
Most primitive version of video in flash is a sequence of images. They are showing some Seinfeld clips that use the technique. Basically, take a video clip, export it as a sequence of images, and then import them into flash (flash will recognize that it is a sequence of images).

problems, no sound, although you can manually add it. it is essentially an image of jpgs. no temporal compression.

QuickTime
Flash Player is embedded in player. Pretty much flash 4 compatible, but can be a little buggy. more for adding effects on top of quicktime movies.

Video on Top of Flash
Interface in Flash, and then layer video ontop of flash using DHTML and iframes. Works pretty well. problems with browser support (due to DHTML).

The Importance of Flash MX Video

• Reduces incompatibilities between systems (some difference between playback on pc and mac, pc smoother).
• Reduces complexities of mcahine interactions.
• Easier to set up on the client.
• More self-contained
• Not easiliy saveable on client-machines
• More onsistence playback across platforms.

on mac, import an 1/8 of a second blank audio on first frame. set it to stream. this will make the video drop frames if it can’t keep up, which leads to better video flow.

Showing new ESPN video player. Flash Interface, with a layer of video (real or windows media) over flash. sometimes it will not come up, can take a while to load due to checking players, browser, etc…

Showing Xgames video full screen flash application / projector, with video. Pretty sweet - mc.

It is more difficult to steal video from Flash. That doesn’t mean it is impossible, but for regular users, it is enough of a hassle, that most will give up or not try.

Because everything is contained within Flash, you can leverage the power of flash with video to completely customize your application (i.e. create a custom / advanced preloader for the video).
more advantages to video in flash

• no missing codec issues.
• fully transparent display mechanism
• temporal compression (only saves video data that changes from flash to flash. sorenson squeeze does this and leads to higher quality and lower file sizes).
• easily operable across flash applicaiotns.
• potential on playback on devices.

Limitations of Video in Flash

• currently not batch encodable (sorenson spark pro can do this).
• No built in buffering mechanisms (you can write your own buffering with ActionScript).
• No built in connection speed detection mchanisms.
• No sure streamtype capabilities.
• Current Flash 6 player pentration is low.

they are showing media metrix numbers for flash penetration. numbers are from march. they are very consistent in growth rates. every 14 months, pentration is up to 86% (based on his research. note, we project flash 6 rates will go up faster than in the past. -mc)

• Video does not automatically stop on last frame (you can write actionscript to stop it).
• upsacing video size is slightly inferior to other video formats.
• not a reference format (quicktime is, windows media, real are not).
• no rights managements capabilities.
• No native full screen mode.

end of session.